Everything: on the night of the Dark Lord's Demise
by MandyQ
Summary: The Dark Lord has fallen. Lucius Malfoy has lost everything... or has he? Eavsesdrop on a private moment Lucius shares with his baby son. Includes flashbacks to Draco's birth. TDH compliant. No spoilers.


Lucius stared down into the cradle at his infant son. "Something's happened tonight, Draco," he whispered. The child did not stir. "Something's happened I could not have foreseen," he added, running his hands over his face. His hands stopped at his temples and he set his jaw. "I had hoped I would never have to have this conversation with you."

The baby rolled over and made a sound. Lucius started a bit. He had no idea if that was an innocuous sound or one that was about to lead to some sort of a crying fit. He'd never been too keen on baby noises. But he dared not allow Draco to cry, especially so late at night. The sound would undoubtedly wake the boy's mother, and Lucius could not bear the thought of disturbing her unnecessarily. He reached down into the cradle and lifted his son into his arms.

"My son," he affirmed. He held the baby a bit tighter. "My precious boy."

"_Lucius, I'm…I'm pregnant again." Narcissa's voice had been more filled with worry than with joy. And he hadn't blamed her. He was terrified of what may come. Two miscarriages in so many years had left his once vivacious young wife both physically and emotionally drained. All he could do was embrace her._

"_We'll just hope," he had told her._

_And hope had turned slowly to joy as they awaited the arrival of the much anticipated Malfoy heir._

"All I've done has been for you, my son," Lucius said, placing a tiny kiss on the boy's head. The infant quieted. "I've served a great cause. I've made choices that may damage my name forever, but I do not regret them, Draco. I do not regret joining with the Dark Lord to purify our world."

Lucius spotted the old wooden rocking chair in the far corner of the room and crept across the rug to sit down in it. "Our cause was great, Draco. And our aims were just, even if our means may not have been. All is fair in war, Draco; that is a lesson you will need to learn. We did what we had to, what needed to be done. And I remain loyal to our ideals. You must never compromise your ideals, Draco. I have fought for our way of life. And I have never questioned it. I fought for what was to be your birthright."

"_Something's wrong! Lucius!" She had fallen to the floor in a heap. There was blood everywhere. He could tell that she was in pain._

"_Cissa," he comforted her, stooping to look her in the face. He felt helpless. And he'd never seen so much blood in his life. "Cissa, is the baby coming?" He tried to keep his wits about him, but he was more afraid than he could ever remember having been._

"_It's too early!" she exclaimed through tears. She was clutching her swollen belly and her whole face was distorted in pain. "It's too early!"_

"You were born to greatness, Draco Malfoy," Lucius assured his sleeping son. "You were born to rule. Your parents were, and are, two very powerful magical people from two of the most powerful Wizarding families in all Christendom. You were born a prince, and I and my colleagues were to see to it that the world you were to rule in would be as pure as your own blood." The tiny boy's head bobbed up and down against his father's shoulder, as though he were nodding in agreement with what was being said. "But the world we brought you in to has ceased to exist this very night."

"_She's bleeding out!"_

"_He's not breathing!"_

"_Seropotion!"_

"_Come on, little one, breathe!"_

"_She's seizing!"_

"_I've got a pulse!"_

"_Get the baby to St. Mungo's!"_

"_I can't stop the bleeding!"_

"_More Seropotion!"_

"A boy no older than you are has brought down our world, Draco," Lucius' eyes began to tear as he continued. "Our world will be different tomorrow. But I assure you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that your life is undamaged by this. Whatever I must do, I swear to you that I will not allow this night's defeat to be a scourge upon our house or a mark against our good name. If I have to crawl on my belly to every fat old man with a wand in all of London, I will see to it that you get the world you deserve. You are a Malfoy, my son. And a Malfoy does what he must." Lucius stroked his son's fine, blonde locks.

"_Your son has been taken to St. Mungo's, Mr. Malfoy," the MediWizard looked as though he had just run ten miles in a rainstorm. Sweat had soaked his hair and his shirt clean through and he was still wearing a lab coat which Lucius could have only guessed had once been white. "We got him breathing on his own, we estimate that he was thirty to thirty-one weeks gestational age. Tthe prognosis at this point is very hopeful." Lucius tried his best to follow what the man was saying._

"_My wife?" Lucius asked, trying his best to peek around the man and through the slight opening in the door to the room he had been so unceremoniously ushered out of just half an hour ago._

"_She lost a lot of blood." the MediWizard wrung his hands. "And that degree of blood loss; the body doesn't handle it well. The blood loss precipitated a minor cardiac event." Lucius wanted to snap the man's neck in two for that comment. He knew good and well that the words "minor" and "cardiac" did not belong in the same sentence. "She's comatose," the doctor explained. Lucius felt as though he had just been punched in the stomach. "And there's no way to tell; we're doing everything we can." Lucius nodded and took in a deep breath. "It's not safe to move her right now, as soon as she's stable we'll be taking her to St. Mungo's as well. You'll have someone here around the clock until there's a change…er… one way or another." Lucius felt his jaw tighten as he gestured to the door with his head. "Not yet, Mr. Malfoy," the doctor told him, "they'll let you know when you can go in."_

"My darling son," Lucius sighed, rocking the baby slowly in the chair. "Your life will not be as I intended it. We shall have to mask our allegiances, to work with the very people who have worked so hard to destroy us. It will be a hard road, Draco. Of that I am more than certain. But, my dear child, I shall do whatever it takes to assure you have a life worthy of you. It may be years before we are above suspicion. But we will overcome this. You have your mother's good name to thank for that. The noble and most ancient house of Black has not been soiled as the name of Malfoy has. I will do what I must to assure the future for you that you deserve. I will deny my allegiance to the Dark Lord publicly; there will be no harm in that now. There will be punishment only for those loyal to him and only shame for those who choose to denounce him."

"I didn't know you were home," a quiet voice called out from the darkness. Lucius watched as his wife stepped out of the doorway and in to the moonlight. He smiled at her, but otherwise made no motion lest he wake the baby.

"Cissa," he addressed her just above a whisper, "darling, did I wake you?"

"Oh no," she answered, crossing the room to place a hand on his shoulder, "I wasn't sleeping. Bella came by. She gave me the news, and I wanted to wait up for you."

"I didn't want to disturb you," he told her, "I thought I'd come down here and see our son." Narcissa nodded.

"Our son," she said, resting her chin on the top of his head, "usually wakes up around this time wanting his bottle. I thought I'd come down and wait." Lucius sucked in a ragged breath and reached his right hand to his left shoulder, placing it on top of hers. "It's good to keep with the things that are consistent."

"_I'm so sorry," she whispered, her parched lips trembling with the effort of speech._

"_What have you to be sorry about, pet?" Lucius held her hand and brushed an errant lock of golden hair from her forehead. Her pallor was still ghastly, but she was awake, and that was progress. He did not even fight the tears that his eyes had again begun to produce. _

"_I so wanted to give you our son," she sighed. He watched a tiny tear escape the corner of her eye and fall past her temple. She didn't know…_

"_Our son is doing well," he told her, as he caught the tear on her face with his finger. "He'll be home in a couple of weeks." Her eyes came open a little wider._

"_Our son's alive?" she asked, her mouth coming agape. Lucius nodded and squeezed his wife's hand._

"_He is," Lucius confirmed, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "Draco Cygnus Abraxas Malfoy; he has your nose, and your chin, and my eyes." Narcissa sniffed. Lucius felt her squeeze his hand back._

"_Don't let him blame himself," she implored, "if I die, he mustn't blame himself…neither should you…"_

"It's awful," he asserted.

"It is awful," she agreed, "but I'd proffer that we've been through worse." She reached down and patted the sparse locks on her son's head. "It will be a long road to where we thought we were heading, and perhaps we'll never get there now, but we will do what we must."

"Nothing will ever be the same, Cissa," Lucius sighed, "The world we brought our son into has ceased to exist. There's nothing left of our way of life." Narcissa squeezed her husband's shoulders.

"But you're mistaken," she corrected him, "as long as we have what's in this room, then there's something." Lucius grinned a little.

"You're a wise woman, Mrs. Malfoy," he told her.

"Wise enough to know what's important," she agreed.

Lucius closed his eyes and nodded.

"_Good morning, Lucius," she greeted him._

"_Good morning darling," he answered, bending to kiss his wife. Narcissa sat on the veranda, her high-backed chair stuffed full of pillows for added comfort and an ermine throw tucked across her lap. She had their tiny son swaddled in blankets and cradled in her arms. "You're looking well," he told her as he sat in the chair opposite the breakfast table from hers._

"_I am well," she confirmed, placing the infant in his nearby bassinet. She smiled up at him and reached across the table for his hand. He took it gladly as he looked into her eyes. Her face was pink and alive in the late August sunlight, and for the first time he was wholly convinced that she was going to recover fully from her ordeal. His eyes went from her smile to the cooing and healthy baby boy next to her and then back again._

_He had everything._

He had everything.


End file.
